Month: October 2015

The past couple of weeks, my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify did a stellar job of reintroducing bands that I hadn’t listened to in a while, and introducing groups I had never heard of. There were several coincidences on the selections of the playlist that impressed me and also kinda freaked me out. To be honest, the playlist for this week was underwhelmed in comparison to recent weeks.

New Discoveries

“Big Timber” by Himsa – The guitar tone on this song got me into it, then upon repeated listens, I appreciated the rest of the qualities of the song. After some research I discovered that the album was partially produced by Devin Townsend, which is an added plus. Also, Himsa has been broken up for about seven years, which I guess is a bummer, but there’s still plenty of this band’s discography to explore.

“Längstmedån” by Vildhjarta – The whole “djent” thing is something I never really caught on to, with the exception of a couple of bands. Where Vildhjarta really made themselves stand out with this song was the ambiance in the background. The song had an added gloomy, melancholic feel to it because of this ambiance.

“Einherjar” by King of Asgard – I’ve listened to this group several times, and each time I have, I’ve enjoyed it. Their sound reminded me a lot of older Amon Amarth. Perhaps I haven’t cared as much lately about the “Viking metal” trend, but either way, this song was a welcomed inclusion on the playlist.

“Extinct” by Moonspell – This song had a gothic, folky feel. Seeing bands like Paradise Lost on Moonspell’s related artists list certainly made sense. The clean vocals reminded me a lot of Týr’s Heri Joenson.

Rediscoveries

“Seven Years Alone” by Devil You Know – In my early teen years, there wasn’t a better vocalist than Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage. I was glad to see his new band Devil You Know release their first album last year. The album wasn’t mind-blowing or anything, but it was twelve tracks of enjoyable, melodic metal, and this was perhaps the catchiest tune of the dozen. I also didn’t realize that the band has another album coming out so soon.

“Homo Sum” by Decapitated – I’m not sure if this could be a rediscovery, since there was a brief week-long span earlier this year where basically every other album I listened to was by Decapitated (I haven’t listened to them since). It was last week when I thought I should listen to a little more Decapitated, and oddly enough there they were in the middle of the playlist.

“High Velocity Impact Spatter” by Cannibal Corpse – I didn’t forget about Cannibal Corpse, but rather I forgot that the album the band released last year was pretty sweet. The song lives up to its namesake.

Ehh…

“Armorist” by Overkill – I like Overkill, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t get into their most recent album, White Devil Armory, which “Armorist” is on.

“Barricades” by Evergrey – This song started out alright with a nice synthy intro, but I wasn’t thrilled by the rest of the song. I’ve listened to several other songs from this band, and they were pretty decent, but I didn’t care for this one.

“Ruthless” by DevilDriver – DevilDriver is just one of those bands I’ve never really gotten into. They do have some good stuff, but I’ve just never really cared that much to look into the band further, and this song didn’t change that at all.